Everything you need to know about the raw aged goat cheese

The farm staff and myself recently sampled over 20 different types of raw goat cheese… and a goat’s milk caramel. Oh my, they are all so yummy. Our favorites are now available in the store!

Compared to cow cheese, goat cheese has a tart, earthy flavor. From the extra sharp Kidchego to the spicy Monterey hot jack to a traditional goat gouda to a mild and smooth goat yogurt cheese, these cheeses do not taste “goat-y”.

I also went a little deeper and interviewed Amos Miller from Misty Creek Goat Dairy.

Amos makes the new goat cheeses. He is also the goat farmer AND farmer Aaron’s uncle. 

Amos is a first generation dairy goat farmer and has been raising dairy goats for 20 years. 

After Amos’ father narrowly skirted death after having his wisdom teeth pulled in 1966, his mother’s dream was to have a dairy goat operation on the property she lived on. After his mother passed in 2000, Amos and his wife moved back onto the property to fulfill her dream and started farming dairy goats.

In the end, his mother’s dream became their dream! And, now, his two sons continue the legacy and have goat dairy farms themselves. In fact, our goat milk comes from Crystal Brook Farm, Amos’s son Henry’s farm.

Amos is a first generation cheesemaker, too. He started making cheese because, well, he really likes cheese. He said, “There’s just something about it.”

For years, Amos took all kinds of cheesemaking classes, many of which were hosted at a local cheese conference. He hired a cheese consultant to help, too. As Amos said, it was “a lot of classes, a lot of conferences, and a lot of rubbing elbows.” He officially started making his own cheese about 10 years ago. 

Amos makes all of his cheese on premises and ages it in reefer trucks specially outfitted for cheese aging.

When cheese is made on the same farm that the milk comes from, like Amos’s goat cheese, it’s called “farmstead” cheese. When you buy milk in and turn it into cheese, it’s called “artisanal”.

Amos is very small in the world of cheesemaking. He makes about 50,000 lbs per year. 

The goat herd at Misty Creek Goat Dairy has about 100-120 goats. 

There are a lot of crosses between Saanen, Alpine, LaMancha, Nubian, and Toggenburg. He’s working to switch to a 100% Alpine herd, but it will take a few years. He aims to have the highest quality stock.

The goats go out on pasture in the warmer months and are given free access to an organic feed year round. 

The pelleted goat feed is GMO free and soy free. It contains corn, wheat middlings, wheat, canola meal, sunflower meal, field peas, calcium, molasses, salt, magnesium oxide, manganese sulfate, and sunflower oil. They also give goats kelp for nutrition.

There are many nutritional benefits to eating goat cheese.

Since goat’s milk is naturally A2, it’s highly digestible.

It contains a good amount of vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats. This includes copper, riboflavin, and calcium. 

The fatty acids in goat cheese metabolize faster than those in cow cheese. This means you will feel full faster and perhaps eat less, which is great for those concerned about overeating.

Many people feel that cow milk produces too much mucus in their system. And, switching to goat milk solves this problem. This is true for Amos’s wife, a nice perk of having a goat dairy :)

Cheese is such a healthy food. Learn a lot more about the reasons why here.

Misty Creek Goat Dairy uses vegetable rennet to make their cheese. This means the cheese is vegetarian.

Amos has a lot of vegetarian customers, and he wanted to make his cheese accessible to them. The rennet he uses is a fermentation-produced chymosin. I recently learned a lot about rennet, and you can read about my rennet research here.

My final question for Amos was “What’s your favorite cheese?” Amos’s answer was “It depends what mood I’m in.”

I agree! There are so many delicious cheeses out there, and each is special in its own way. Maybe I’m in the mood for a stinky blue cheese with a punch, or maybe a goat cheddar for snacking, or maybe a creamy goat yogurt cheese on a toasted sandwich.

I highly suggest giving the new raw aged goat cheese a try. If you have any questions about them, please let me know. I’m always happy to help!